tracker
09-19-2007, 07:57 PM
It was a hot dry day ,maybe pushing the 30 mark and the only sign we found was a week old which was very dicouraging to my hunting partner and I,so we decided to go different directions for the afternoon in seach of the illusive 6 point bull elk or at least some sign that he was around anyway.
I went into a spot that I knew had elk the previous year but did not see anything in there this years pre season scouting .Put my day pack on and left about 4:30 to have a look in the thick stuff.What a eye opener every step you took it was a big crunch and crack,after a couple hundred yards of that I noticed a popular grove and headed for it to see if there was any elk tracks through it ,just before getting to to the grove I noticed some tracks in the dry dirt below me and see a partial trail leading up the draw and decided it would be a great place to explore .Cow talking all the way in my stealth :cool: mode I heard some snaping and crunching behind me ,as I turned to look I see a black figure goiong through the bush about 70 yards away as I pull my bino's up to look at the bear I noticed a cow elk running behind it,well no black bear but a very dark calf elk.
Not long after another bigger black figure appears through the heavy bush and notice right away it had some head gear and black dark horns with gleaming white tips almost glowing ,as he chased the cow I noticed the 3 top points but could not make out the bottom eye guards,so he went by me and the cow suddenly turned back and ran with here calf over the draw where they came from and the bull back in pursuit of the cow ,with a grunt I stopped him and counted the six I needed though my bino's and up goes the 7mm mag crosshairs on the sweet spot and boom,he hunches over and bolts up the draw he gets 25 yards as I reload to give him another I noticed he was hurt bad and decided to watch and see what would come next.
I can tell you it was a amazing site to watch as the bull tryed to jump over some blow down and sat back down on his butt and got up staggering hitting tree's like a pin ball machine.A skid down the small draw and ending up on his right side.I slowly walked up to him as he take his last breaths and notice he was hit in both lungs by my trusty 160 gr barnes TSX.
But here is the kicker the bull was black head to toe,not color but he was covered in a fowl smelling black mud!!! Even his horns were covered, and looked black except the white tips.After a few calls for help we had him gutted and hung up early that evening and came in the bush the next morning with the pack boards and retreived him ,between 4 of us we had him out in 2 !/2 hours ,not bad I would say through 500 yards of blow down and steep draws. :biggrin:
Great experience and the memories of my friend and brother's will last a lifetime;) Oh ya he was a 6x5 not bad bull but legal and going down !!
And yes we are going back to find the elk wallow :wink:
I went into a spot that I knew had elk the previous year but did not see anything in there this years pre season scouting .Put my day pack on and left about 4:30 to have a look in the thick stuff.What a eye opener every step you took it was a big crunch and crack,after a couple hundred yards of that I noticed a popular grove and headed for it to see if there was any elk tracks through it ,just before getting to to the grove I noticed some tracks in the dry dirt below me and see a partial trail leading up the draw and decided it would be a great place to explore .Cow talking all the way in my stealth :cool: mode I heard some snaping and crunching behind me ,as I turned to look I see a black figure goiong through the bush about 70 yards away as I pull my bino's up to look at the bear I noticed a cow elk running behind it,well no black bear but a very dark calf elk.
Not long after another bigger black figure appears through the heavy bush and notice right away it had some head gear and black dark horns with gleaming white tips almost glowing ,as he chased the cow I noticed the 3 top points but could not make out the bottom eye guards,so he went by me and the cow suddenly turned back and ran with here calf over the draw where they came from and the bull back in pursuit of the cow ,with a grunt I stopped him and counted the six I needed though my bino's and up goes the 7mm mag crosshairs on the sweet spot and boom,he hunches over and bolts up the draw he gets 25 yards as I reload to give him another I noticed he was hurt bad and decided to watch and see what would come next.
I can tell you it was a amazing site to watch as the bull tryed to jump over some blow down and sat back down on his butt and got up staggering hitting tree's like a pin ball machine.A skid down the small draw and ending up on his right side.I slowly walked up to him as he take his last breaths and notice he was hit in both lungs by my trusty 160 gr barnes TSX.
But here is the kicker the bull was black head to toe,not color but he was covered in a fowl smelling black mud!!! Even his horns were covered, and looked black except the white tips.After a few calls for help we had him gutted and hung up early that evening and came in the bush the next morning with the pack boards and retreived him ,between 4 of us we had him out in 2 !/2 hours ,not bad I would say through 500 yards of blow down and steep draws. :biggrin:
Great experience and the memories of my friend and brother's will last a lifetime;) Oh ya he was a 6x5 not bad bull but legal and going down !!
And yes we are going back to find the elk wallow :wink: